Between my wife's bullseye pistols and my rifles and pistols, we have 8 we use regularly. 2 of hers and 1 of mine are mounted on 1911s. I have 4 ARs with them and one mounted on my 336 marlin. We have had no failures of any kind in the last 15 years or so, since we put them on. We have 5 ultradot, 2 bushnells and one vortex.

I have another 5 or 6 that have been on and off guns repeatedly over the last 15 years and no issues with any of those either.

I'm not sure what to give for advice since I'm not aware of anyone have much of an issue with them. I've played around with everything from super cheap milletts to high end trijicons and aim points on my duty guns and no issues at all.

 

No issues with my Burris FF3. I mounted it on a 10-22. Had to adjust windage and elevation to get it POI to equal POA. Then shot a couple relatively nice groups with it at 50 yds. I've since shot some steel with it a couple times and it's been great

I have a Vortex Viper that I bought on sale awhile back. I haven't mounted that one on anything yet

 

I've got a FF3 on one of my SA's and have had no problems at all.

 

2 FF3's, 1 FF4 and a Romeo 0. 1 FF3 had an issue with its on/off button. Back to manufacturer, replaced free, no questions asked. Otherwise all good, and I love them, else I would probably be cussing at scopes.
gkn

 

I‘ve had my Nikon & my Burris for years now. No problems whatsoever.

 

I've had multiples of Burris, Bushnell, Vortex, and ADE, a reliable budget brand. The only problem I ever had was one of them eating the battery too quickly. ADE customer service quickly rectified that problem. All have been reliable and accurate for years. Your unfortunate experience sounds like an outlier. The frustrating pattern seems like it might have a common cause other than red dots being universal lemons, but it's sufficiently foreign to me that I don't have any helpful suggestions.

 

The Burris FF3 on my Ruger MK IV has been solid. Zero issues.

I kind of pamper my firearms though...

 

Raztus, I also pamper my firearms and their related accessories.

 

I have the Vortex Viper, Burris FF3, Romeo 5, and just bought a Feyachi. All work flawlessly.

 

My experience with mini red dot sights is limited but I've had the FF on 30 cal gals and never had an issue.

 

I use primarily primary arms prism sights. None on rimfire akm in 7.62x39 or a couple on 5.56 akm. No problems. 3x 5x prism and a regular with no magnification on 9mm. Stribog sp9a3. Rimfire I use scopes. I had an extremely inexpensive reflex sight on a browning buckmark that did great. Sorry your experiencing problems.

 

You must have the worst luck in dots. Ive have Sig, Burris, Vortex, Holosun and Trijicon red/green dots and knock on wood havent had any issues.

 

My Holosun 507 on the Ruger Mk IV has been superb. The after-market mount had an issue with the screws not staying tight, but the LocTite brigade fixed 'em good.

That loose mount issue may be part of your problem. You didn't specify whether you'd checked, so forgive me if I seem to be teaching Grandma to suck eggs.

 

What mount is that? I'm liking how contoured it is!

 

No issues with the following on 556 and 300 BLK
Trijicon MRO
Eotech XPS
On my mark 2 the Holosun 508
Even one on my s&w 1854 just see bow it would do. 100 rounds of 240 JSP at 25/50/100 yards

 

I’ve had good luck with my holosun 507c and 507k on my carry pistols.

 

No problems with Burris -- I have a Fastfire II and two of the Fastfire III. I'm using them only on handguns, though, and not shooting at 100 yards -- I use scopes for the longer distances.

 

You sure your name isn't Joe Btfsplk

 

GladesGuy, My name is not Joe Btfsplk. But, when it comes to the red dot sights mentioned, it may as well be!

 

You were shooting to the left with all three handguns at 25 yards, and doing so unsupported.
Did you shoot them in off a bench beforehand, or just assume the dots were on and your shots should be on? They need zeroed the same as a scope.

Supposing you have a 3 MOA Dot. At 25 yards you should shoot it in rested on a bench using a 3/4''-1'' bull on your target. If you can hit the bull rested then move on to your off hand.
If your shooting to the left now, it's you fading to the left and not the fault of the red dot. Concentrate on not fading, keep the gun up and follow through.

As far as using a dot at 100 yards on a rifle, you will be lucky putting them in a 3" bull with a 3MOA dot.

 

I have Swamp Fox, Sig and 2 Holosuns on pistols. Very little adjustment required, shoots fine.

I have Sig, Vortex, PA, Holosun, Riton, TruGlo, Tacticon, Firefield, Monstrum, and Osight on AR’s. Dots and prisms. All were on paper when I started zeroing at 25 yards, all adjusted just fine, all will let me ring steel out to 300.

 

Reminder that unless your iron sights are integral to the pistol like on snub nose revolvers, your pistol irons are as likely to go flying off as a pistol red dot failing.

 

I have FF3s on a S&W Victory and a 22A. No problems with either ever. On other guns I have a Holosun 507K and several models of Crimson Trace including their cheapest one on a 10mm that, to my surprise, has held up amazingly well. No issues for me with any of them.

 

I had 3 or 4 Vortex Venoms go bad. Replaced by Vortex. Trijicons, Holosun, DPP, and others have all been trouble free.

 

I mounted a super cheap cylee on a g44, required 2 clicks up, however that pistol itself is so inaccurate hard to say on holding zero. Most other mountings are on frame mounts which have offset and corrections were required. typically on slide mounts the 4 or so i've mounted required minimal adjustments for a 18-20yard zero.

One possibility you adjusted sights for your tendency to shoot left which as a right handed person is rather common.

 

One possibility you adjusted sights for your tendency to shoot left which as a right handed person is rather common.

FimRire Ronglifle,

Please reread my original posting. Yes, I am right-handed. Why then were no zeroing issues experienced while using the original, factory iron sights?

 

I have been running red dots for a long time and never had the problems you are having. One gun I could understand but several guns and different dots tells me you are the problem. Have someone else sight in the guns and see if they have the same problem. Questions: Are you keeping both eyes open? Do you have an eye dominance problem?
My first red dot was a Weaver QuikPoint in the mid 60's.

 

That is a good point. I shoot right handed but am left eye dominant.

It can cause a pretty big POI-POA shift at short distances that would magnify at longer distance when shooting with one eye closed compared to both eyes open.

 

I have $20 Cvlife dots on my 10/22, buckmark and had one on my Henry. I have not had any problems (other than I didn't like the looks of it on the Henry) with any of them.

 

It really doesn’t sound like there’s anything wrong with any of the sites you are using.

Having to use most of the available adjustment to achieve zero is fine as long as you are indeed able to get it zeroed.

Zeroing an unmagnified red dot at 100 yards is always going to be difficult and will probably eat up most of the available adjustments since they are usually used at much shorter distances. How much of the target is covered by dot at 100 yards? This is also why the range of adjustment is listed in the specs.

 

Try stacking the target on top of the dot.